In the autumn of 2016, Deutscher Künstlerbund presents works by Holger Wüst, winner of the 2016 »HAP-Grieshaber-Preis der VG Bild-Kunst« awarded by the Stiftung Kunstfonds.

Holger Wüst addresses political and social issues, documenting them in large-format collages of found photographs that fill walls and entire rooms. The pictures show excerpts and details from different angles, both distanced and bluntly direct. His films are based on the same way of looking: the camera pans slowly along a scene, gently rhythmed by alternating close-up and long shots, creating panoramas of calm aesthetic beauty, a quality diametrically opposed to their content. Wüst’s work can be viewed purely in artistic terms, but also as a warning and encouragement to critically question our political and social reality.

In the exhibition at the Deutscher Künstlerbund project space, Wüst shows his »Zekher« series as films ― allegorical pictures (Part One: The Consumer World As A Joint Work; Part II: Manpower As Commodity) that speak of the utopia of revolution. Referencing the theories of Karl Marx and Walter Benjamin, he combines them into a surreal artistic world: the naturalization of the social; money as a form of power in one’s pocket; work contracts freely entered into for real unfreedom; storms as a natural force of crisis in capitalism; and Benjamin’s »Angel of History« as revolutionary memory. The Hebrew title »Zekher« describes a form of dialectical memory that, while looking back, is always also directed towards the future; that doesn’t mourn and perpetuate the mistakes of the past, seeing them instead as containing a vision of the future.

Holger Wüst (born 1970) studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt under Christa Näher, Hermann Nitsch and Thomas Bayrle, from whose master class he graduated in 1997. He is the 18th recipient of the HAP Grieshaber Prize.

By awarding this prize named after the painter and woodcutter HAP Grieshaber, VG Bild-Kunst (Germany’s copyright agency for visual art) honours an artist who made a decisive contribution to the agency’s development. From the 1970s onwards, Grieshaber campaigned hard for copyright on behalf of his fellow artists, as well as being a strong advocate of improved social support for artists.

The prize money for the HAP Grieshaber Prize is provided by the cultural organization of VG Bild-Kunst, using funds held back in accordance with the agency’s plans for copyright payments. The prize is thus a mark of recognition for artists from artists.

VG Bild-Kunst and Stiftung Kunstfonds in collaboration with Deutscher Künstlerbund